A packaged electrode, which is made by packaging an electrode between a pair of separators, is known (see Patent Literature 1).
The separators are shaped like thin films, and easily curled up. Since a size of a battery for an electric vehicle and a hybrid vehicle in particular is much larger than a battery for a household appliance, handling is difficult, and it is more likely that separators are not only curled up, but also wrinkled. Therefore, separators are curled up or wrinkled when superimposing the separators on both sides of an electrode, thus making a joining operation for joining edges of the separators more complex. This inhibits improvement of efficiency in manufacturing a packaged electrode, and thus makes it impossible to enhance efficiency in manufacturing an entire battery.
In the technology described in Patent Literature 1, with the use of a plurality of receiving stands having suction boards, and holding plates, which move cyclically, a state is created in which an electrode plate is sandwiched between the receiving stand onto which a cut piece of a lower-side separator is suctioned and fixed, and the holding plate onto which a cut piece of an upper-side separator is suctioned and fixed. Then, while the electrode plate is moved in that state, outer peripheries of the upper and lower separators on the electrode plate are thermally adhered and cut off, and excess separators are removed, thus manufacturing a packaged electrode.